This archive report was first published on 19 October 2019.
On October 19, 2019, Toyota Kenya announced plans to begin assembling its Hilux pickups in Kenya, a move that could be driven by the government's directive giving preferential treatment to firms with local assembly plants in the procurement of motor vehicles and motorcycles.
The assembly line, located at the Associated Vehicle Assemblers (AVA) in Mombasa, will be the third Toyota model to be assembled locally, following the Toyota Landcruiser and the Hino 300 and 500 series trucks and buses.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the number of vehicles assembled in Kenya increased from 3,241 in 2018 to 4,406 in 2019 between January and July.
This initiative by Toyota comes at a time when Kenya is working on a National Automotive Policy aimed at discouraging the importation of used cars and shifting demand to new cars made in Kenya.
Toyota's move is not the only one in the industry, as Renault Trucks has also opened an assembly plant in Thika, as reported by Kenyan Wall Street.
